Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Strong Violence: Combat against non-human enemies. Enemies may be cut in half, one instance of combat against another human, blood is shown when player character is struck, player character can be impaled by traps, a bloodless battle scene is shown. One character coughs up blood

Fantasy Magic: Plot involves substance and items that can control time. At certain points, the player character sees visions of the future. Final boss uses fantasy-style magic.

Sexual Content: Main female character wears bikini-top style outfit. Some female looking enemies wear revealing outfits. Cutscene involves a bath scene between two characters and hints at sexual intercourse. A kiss is also seen.

Author’s Note:
This review was written for the console and PC versions of the game. Some or all of this may not apply to the GBA version.

While most gamers might not know about the Prince of Persia series, most, if not all, are probably familiar with the Sands of Time trilogy; the critically acclaimed series that consists of three games with Sands of Time beginning it.

Note: This review contains plot spoilers

Plot

The Sands of Time takes place sometime in medieval Persia. The game opens with Shahraman, the King of Persia, and his son, the titular Prince, launching an invasion on India for honor and glory. With no warning of the attack, India falls and the Persia army captures a great deal of spoils, including a large hourglass filled with oddly-glowing sand, a mysterious dagger, and a number of women, including the Princess of India, Farah.

After the raid, the Persia army continues on the way to the palace of Azad. Once there, the Prince is tricked by none other than the Vizier of India, who had betrayed his homeland in exchange for a part of the spoils, into unlocking the hourglass with the dagger. Heedless of a warning, the Prince does so, unleashing a terror known as the Sands of Time. The sands sweep over the palace, turning anyone it touches into mindless monsters made of sand. Only the Prince, Farah, and the Vizier escape this fate. After fleeing from the Vizier, who covets the Dagger of Time, the Prince and Farah join forces to recover the Sands of Time and undo the damage the Prince has done.

Gameplay

The Sands of Time takes place almost entirely inside the palace of Azad. The player controls the Prince as he goes from room to room reclaiming the palace’s halls and chambers from the Sands of Time. When a room is entered, the Prince must defeat the sand monsters that appear and then use the dagger to capture their sand. If he does not capture them, they get up, and you have to knock them down again.

After defeating all the monsters in a room, you have to solve a puzzle, usually involving trying to get to a distant switch by running and performing acrobatic leaps and other daring feats to get there. Chances are, you’ll mess up more than once, but that’s what you have the Dagger of Time for. If you have sand, you can use the dagger to rewind time by 30 seconds. In other words, if you died fighting or fell off an unbelievably high cliff, you can make it so it never happened.

Sometimes, you have to enlist the help of your companion, Farah. A lot of puzzles can be solved by moving some piece of furniture that hides a crack. Farah will slip through said crack, and you can move on. Unfortunately, it’s only the first piece of the puzzle you solve more often than not.

Offensive Content

Violence

The violence in this game isn’t exactly mild, but it’s also not on the level of so-gory-you’ll be sick either. All of the enemies are human in appearance, but they are all made entirely of sand. Usually, if you capture an enemy, they’ll scream or groan before vanishing. Enemies can also be cut in half down the middle. The results are bloodless however. Remember, they’re made of sand. No matter how they’re defeated, the enemies disappear after defeat.

The final battle is against another human. Although the death of the enemy is shown, it is hardly bloody.

Blood is shown when the Prince is struck. It’s just a quick flash of red that doesn’t linger. The most cringe-worthy scenes are when the prince is hurt by one of the palace’s many traps, including spikes that pop out of the walls and floors and spinning saw blades (who would’ve thought they had that technology). You’ll probably fall victim to these traps many times, but fortunately dismemberment is one area not explored. Still, in the case of the spike traps, it does look like the Prince is impaled on them.

On the subject of blood, the Vizier is shown coughing up blood on two occasions.

**************Plot Spoilers***************

Towards the end of the game, Farah decides to return the Sands of Time to the hourglass herself. She falls into a hole but the Prince, holding the blade of the dagger, catches her. Blood is seen on the blade and Farah does fall to her death. Though there is no blood seen on the floor, her body is shown.

**************Spoilers End***************

Spiritual Content

The entire plot revolves around the Sands of Time. Other than drying out any person it touches, it apparently can control time and even grant immortality. (more on that later) The Dagger of Time can control it. It can reverse time or slow it down. When you enter a save point, a vision is seen, usually of an area you haven’t explored yet. This may be interpreted as divination; I personally didn’t see it as such. It was more like the sands showing what would happen.

Other than the time-manipulating abilities, some images of, I’m guessing, gods can be seen in places. I was not offended by these statues as they were part of the setting and nothing more.

**************Plot Spoilers***************

The final battle is against the Vizier himself, and he makes use of magic to fight you. His magic isn’t really of the occult; he just says a few words and creates a clone of himself to fight you with.

**************Spoilers End***************

Sexual Content

Farah wears a revealing bikini-top outfit and a skirt. Some of the female enemies wear less. What they do wear amounts to little more than said bikini-top and a loincloth.

**************Plot Spoilers***************

As you could probably guess, a bit of romance blossoms between the Prince and Farah. Near the end of the game, the Prince finds Farah in a bath, and she asks him to strip down and bathe with her. We see him remove only his weapons, but it’s implied he takes everything off. We see them swim together, though nudity is never explicitly shown. At one point, we see Farah’s shadowy figure from the back as she sits, still naked, by the side of the pool.

The pair then climb onto a bed and are about to kiss before the screen goes black, so it implies the pair had sex.

And more spoilers:

It turns out the whole sequence was a dream, still a dream they could’ve done without. A bit of milder content has the Prince steal a kiss from Farah at the end.

**************Spoilers End***************

Noteworthy Content

The Prince clearly made a mistake by releasing the Sands of Time. The entire game is about him trying to undo that mistake.

Farah, though sometimes critical with the Prince, shows no hatred towards him, even though she has every right to. Although, it’s not actually indicated that she forgives him either.

*************Plot Spoilers*************

Getting pretty common aren’t they? Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Even the Vizier has something to offer. He covets immortality because he is dying. I would say that says a lot not being willing to accept things we can’t change. He is willing to betray and kill to keep himself from dying. Clearly, he’s everything we shouldn’t be.

**************Spoilers End***************

You also can’t leave Farah behind and rush off. For one thing, not only do you need her help, if she dies the game ends unless you can reverse it, so your encouraged to take care of her.

Conclusion

I thought the Sands of Time was one of the most brilliant games I had ever played. I found the storyline quite unique and the graphics were, in my book, breathtaking. True, it was a challenging game. I lost count of how many times I died just from fighting. The traps and all the times I fell were too many to count. Still, I kept on pushing and I thought it deserved all of its acclaim.

But while the game may be acclaimed, clean it is sadly not. The violence isn’t all that problematic, especially since it’s bloodless and not for its own sake. You’re fighting to protect yourself, not just because you can. The spiritual murk may be a little much for some, but the worst had to be that bath scene. Was it really necessary to show the two bathing together? Aren’t there better ways of showing romance? The old Disney way wouldn’t be so bad. I remember when it was limited to affectionate glances and the big finale was the kiss, not taking anything off.

So, while the game is entertaining, it’s really not recommended. If you do decided to track this title down, I’d recommend keeping your eyes shut throughout that scene.

That being said, this game is much better than Warrior Within, its sequel. A little less offensive content and it would be great.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this Spotlight review are those of the reviewer (both ratings and recommendations), and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Eden Communications or the Christian Answers Network.

Comments are closed

The bath scene really is not nearly bad enough to skip the whole game. You can skip it for goodness sakes!

BrandonSeptember 26, 2010

I've just noticed you're very liberal about what you watch on TV and games you play. I guess you read romance novels too, eh?

(guest)September 27, 2010

Who are you to decide that?

samstarrettDecember 20, 2010

I'm with Guest. Who are you to judge another man's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed he will stand, for God is able to make him stand.

colonel2linkDecember 20, 2010

errr, no, I don't (read romance novels). Yes, I'm fairly liberal when it comes to entertainment, but I could be quite conservative and not have a problem with this particular scene. And you.can.skip.it.

TheophilusJuly 10, 2009

This game is classic Prince of Persia except they got the difficulty of the game just right with the use of the dagger to rewind time. Instead of coming off cheap this just makes the game more smooth and less frustrating.

I think this review covers everything pretty well but I would say it’s overly critical. Sands of Time I didn’t think deserved a “Strong Caution”, especially when such a rating implies that the game is “full of objectionable material.” This game does have objectionable content but only enough to warrant (I would say) a “some-issues” rating. Most of the game is pretty harmless and while combat is there it is 98% (or more) done toward those sand creatures. Yes, you fight the vizier and a few other humans and there is some blood but that, I thought, was minor. And as you later find out in the game…well…let’s just say it changes things quite a bit.

You can be impaled but this is to encourage you to be careful with the traps and plan things out. Peril is there of course (as it is in any PoP game) but I think it makes evading the traps more exciting; it didn’t seem to encourage violence but instead it encouraged survival.

I would say that if you’re looking into a good action-platformer this is a good game to start with (minus the objectionable content). Definitely pick it out if you’re even considering something like God of War as it contains much less objectionable content and is just a better game all around.

FollowerJuly 10, 2009

You think this game desrves a Strong Caution? Then what would you give a game like God of War, when they actually show nudity within the bath scene? I can see this getting a Mild, but if our ratings are equivalent to G, PG-13, and R, would you honestly say this is R?

If the bath scene was just a dream, then how did Farah steal the dagger from the prince?

(guest)September 27, 2010

If he was dreaming, she probably took it while he was asleep.

SeriousGamerSeptember 27, 2010

I was under the assumption it was a dream because the Prince wasn't in that spot when he woke up. He was laying on top of some coffin it looked like. He even says it was a dream, "a dream they both shared." And like the guest said, she probably took it while he was sleeping.

FollowerJuly 10, 2009

@Serious:

I just think, when comparing this game to its sequel (which is much heavier in sexual content and violence, and probably deserves a strong caution) that this game should land a “some issues.” But that’s just my personal opinion, man.

The King of PersiaJuly 12, 2009

Are you kidding me?! This game is like a much milder version of God of War. I agree this game is violent, but not nearly violent enough to deserve a Strong Caution rating.

But something is still wrong with these ratings, in my country, this game is rated 7 years and up. Can you belive that?! And they gave all the NHL Games a 16 years and up rating. Belive it or not.

BrandonSeptember 26, 2010

Has anyone noticed the nudity in this game? How stupid can you all be to play it?

PersonSeptember 26, 2010

First, don't call people stupid for playing the game. Second, what nudity? I'm very sure there isn't anything, if there is, be specific where.

PersonSeptember 26, 2010

Never mind that last one, I GUESS you could call it nudity, but still, have you actually watched the scene you're talking about? I doubt it.
And again, don't call people (myself included) stupid for playing this game.

"We see them swim together, though nudity is never explicitly shown. "

SeriousGamerSeptember 26, 2010

We're all entitled to our own opinions, but that was just downright uncalled for. Just because you don't approve of this game doesn't mean we're all stupid or somehow less Christian because we do. And besides that, how could I have reviewed this game fairly if I didn't play it? Yes, there's suggested nudity, but there are worse things they could have done, like show it. I'm not excusing the fact that they included that element in the game, but there's no need to lash out at others. As I said, I couldn't have judged this game fairly if I hadn't played it. So, what right do you have to judge us as stupid when you know nothing about us either. Or let me use something you might understand.

Matthew 7:1,4

"Judge not, that ye be not judged…Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?"

jesusiskingSeptember 27, 2010

"How stupid can you all be to play it?" Um….Excuse me? You're calling other people stupid who play this game? Brandon, calling people stupid is uncalled for and you gain nothing from it, except now i have even less respect for you. Srsly Brandon, That isn't right, even if the game contained nudity, you'd still have no right to say that.

Christian Gamers Code

The Christian Gamer is a believer in Jesus Christ as the way to eternal salvation (John 3:16). As a Christian, responsible to God for my actions and thoughts, I promise to choose my games carefully. My goal is to be a good witness in my purchasing decisions, in my game play with others, and in the use of my time.